Lexi Wright of Olds has joined the worldwide trend of providing meal kit services like Chefs Plate, Goodfood, and Hello Fresh.
She has decided to give it a local approach by delivering her kits across Mountain View County.
A study done by the NPD Group, a Canadian market research company, indicates that the meal kit industry in Canada has roughly doubled since 2014 and is expected to bring in more than $400 million this year.
The study also says that 13 per cent of Canadians have used a meal kit service at some point and 11 per cent have done so in the past year.
Wright's business is called Time For Health.
“I just kind of saw the need for it and I know that Didsbury doesn’t have Meals on Wheels for seniors for one thing.
“I saw that some people from our gym and other people that I’m friends with — were doing the ones where they buy the box and cook it themselves or whatever. I’ve actually been thinking about it for probably a year and a half,” Wright said.
The NPD Group study says convenience is a driving force in the adoption of using these meal kit services and that 67 per cent of users have cited this to be the case.
Before starting this new endeavour, Wright owned a dairy cow publication called Cowsmopolitan with her sister, which they sold in March.
One key difference between the online meal kit services and what is done by Time for Health is that the food is already prepared when it arrives at your door.
Each week the menu changes, with eight meal options to choose from that come in three different sizes — small, large and low carb (meaning less starch).
“Everything has meat, starch, vegetables. And all of the macronutrients are figured out for each meal, each week,” said Wright.
Macronutrients are a specific type of food such as fats, proteins or carbohydrates that are required in a diet.
“Basically I rotate the menu items through, but it’s about five to six weeks (worth of menu items) because I’m introducing two new menu items a week,” Wright said.
In the near future, Wright hopes to add more customization to the service to accommodate people’s food preferences.
“I’m currently doing a plated thing so you get what you get: this meat, this starch, this vegetable.
“What I’m having though lately is I’m having a lot of people say 'well, I don’t like carrots, or I don’t like broccoli' or whatever, so you end up swapping stuff out.
“I’m going to switch it so they can actually choose and mix and match whatever they want every week,” Wright said.
A lot of work and time is put into those meals.
Every Tuesday morning from 4 until 10 a.m. Wright cooks and packages the meals in a rented space in the county.
Wright had to build a closed space in her garage to hold a fridge and freezer for the food because of Alberta Health regulations.
She makes an effort to make her food gluten-friendly.
“I’m not saying I’m 100 per cent gluten-free but I try, because I actually have a wheat allergy, so that’s part of it,” Wright said. “I just learned to cook different ways — healthy but still something that tastes good.”
